Texas vs. Iowa State Film Review (Oct. 31, 2015)

[Ryan Bridges]

I've watched the offense only, so that's where the focus is going to be for a while. It sucked. It's everyone's fault.

1. I've seen some complaints about how much Texas threw the ball. They should have thrown it more. The run game wasn't working because Iowa State had 8-9 guys in the box on run downs and the interior of the offensive line was in the backfield a lot. Sedrick Flowers and Taylor Doyle need to be replaced. Wickline is surely aware, which means he hasn't been able to groom anyone who's better, which is almost as bad as if he weren't aware. 

2. You may be asking yourself, "If Iowa State was committing eight and nine guys to stopping the run, surely there were opportunities in the passing game, right?" Right. This is what Texas was seeing nearly all of the first three quarters.

Eight-yard cushions, bailing at the snap, no deep safety. Completion + broken tackle = touchdown. Slant, hitch, smoke, out — all of these are there for the taking. And after you've run them a couple of times, you go to the sluggo, hitch-n-go, out-n-up, etc. I know Norvaylor is aware of this because they're smarter than I am. I know they've passed this wisdom on to Jerrod Heard because:

That's a run play with a backside hitch attached. I don't know if Heard isn't recognizing it anymore, or if the coaches were telling him when to throw it and now they no longer trust him to do it for some reason. But if Texas can't give teams a reason not to load the box, they won't score many points. Related to that...

3. Bubble screens! People are mad about the bubble screens. I counted five. Three of them were on target. Of those, two were decently blocked. Those two produced 20 yards. The others went for negative yardage or, in one instance, a single yard. The offense needed to attack the outside quickly to spread Iowa State out. The offense's go-to method of doing that is the bubble screen. You can gripe that there should be other ways to do it — and you'd be right — but it also doesn't get much simpler than a bubble screen.

4. Passing game. I'll show some examples, but besides what I mentioned in point no. 2, there are a lot of questions. In my mind there are two possibilities. One is the coaches don't know what they're doing; the other is that Heard isn't capable of doing more. Traylor and Norvell have more than 25 years of coaching experience each, and the passing game grew some when Swoopes was in there, so you can guess which side I come down on. I still think they can do much better, though.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

The first drive is a pretty good summation of the whole game.

1st & 10

I believe this was a new addition to the playbook, and I haven't completely figured out the details but hopefully we can during this review. I'd call this Wham Zone, or Inside Zone Wham. It looks like Split Zone but the fullback is kicking out a 4i instead of the end man on the line of scrimmage. I have reason to think there may have been some reads involved (we'll get to that), and I think this was probably just an adjustment to Iowa State's defensive front and not something we will do against other teams in the future. 

Anyway, it's sort of an interesting play that worked all right except when the center or guards started hanging out in the backfield, forcing the back to slow down and cut sooner. Iowa State also got better about aggressively attacking the fullback, which had a similar disruptive effect.

Before moving on, notice the cushion John Burt is getting up top. He knows it and runs a hitch. That tells me it's built into the offense. Texas never did anything about it.

Also notice Iowa State's adjustment to jet motion. The free safety screaming downhill to cut off Daje Johnson is necessarily going to create a lane to throw the slant to Burt. As I remember it, Texas used that against UCLA last season to get Swoopes comfortable and get some easy completions. (It's also a touchdown if the corner misses the tackle.) Texas never did anything about it.

2nd & 4

After a six-yard gain on 1st down, Texas is right where they want to be. They like the look they've got to the quads side and try the bubble screen, except Andrew Beck decides to take the play off. Watch his head — it's darting from the defender to Heard for some reason. Just do your friggen job, dude, and this would have been a first down. Instead, it's 3rd & long.

3rd & 7

You need seven yards and you run 4 Verticals? I am usually not one to complain about individual play calls, and I can still make a defense for this one, but with a struggling QB this wouldn't be my first thought. As for the defense: The switch verticals on the bottom has been good at times for Texas; the coaches may have reasoned Heard couldn't dink and dunk and they needed explosive plays from the passing game; and they may have thought they were going to walk all over Iowa State and so they could afford to take shots such as this at the risk of a 3-and-out. 

This play is an example of what Strong talked about in his press conference, where Heard starts scrambling against a three-man rush instead of evading the rush and resetting. Also, Heard goes to his right every time. Every time. Instead of spinning out and resetting between the hashes, he goes to the sideline and shrinks the field. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Here's one of the plays that made me think that Inside Zone Wham play was a read, but seeing it again and remembering how few of the "reads" have actually been reads lately, I think it was a called QB run.

Iowa State starting attacking the mesh point after this, and Texas didn't run the QB keep version again. Pay attention because this is maybe the only good play Sedrick Flowers made all night. That's Caled Bluiett making the lead block.

 

[North Texas Golfer]

The 2nd and 4 play above wasn't going anywhere even if Beck makes his block. There are 2 more Iowa State players coming up that would have stopped this play. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Pretty light box this time. Iowa State is pretty worried about the bubble screen, but look what they don't give half a s*** about on the other side.

Doyle gets worked over, but what else is new? Both guards also fail to reach the linebackers.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

The 2nd and 4 play above wasn't going anywhere even if Beck makes his block. There are 2 more Iowa State players coming up that would have stopped this play. 

I think Daje is faster than you think he is, and if Beck had attacked his block the near defender (a 233-pound linebacker) would have had to bow around it to get to the ball. Even still, "not going anywhere" is better than -3 yards, which is what it was instead. 

 

[Danny Hale]

I do not think Texas runs any reads on run plays they all seem to be called as RB runs or QB runs. so either our coaches can`t teach the zone read scheme or we`re not actually running read option plays. as play caller I would take 5 yard hitches to John Burt every play with CB 8 yards off and backpeddling very easy play that middle school teams can complete. Slants are also easy pass plays against that coverage but Texas doesn`t throw slants.Doyle and Flowers are so useless it is laughable that Wickline keeps playing them. they give up sacks or pressure on almost every pass play and fail to stop penetration on most run plays. Charlie has proven he can`t hire competent offensive coaches or at least coaches that can teach the scheme properly. one game this year the offense has had 400 yards of offense against a really bad Cal defense. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Here's where Texas should be throwing the bubble screen. The blitz is tailor-made to stop inside zone read. Heard is just oblivious. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Check out the coverage here. This was probably Iowa State's plan to take away the switch release verticals deep passing concept that Texas likes so much.

Fortunately, there's a weakness — the solo coverage on the backside. Heard recognizes it (read: he was told to look there), but he doesn't throw it. Maybe it wasn't open, though it looks like it was. More likely he either wasn't willing to stand in the pocket and take a hit, or he just couldn't see, because Flowers did Flowers stuff. 

It's worth mentioning this coverage not only means Johnson is one-on-one with the corner, but also that the linebacker is alone against the running back if the back releases. If Texas puts an actual Power 5-caliber left guard out there, imagine the possibilities.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Here's a good look at how Iowa State's ends started playing the Inside Zone Wham play. 

He attacks so fast Bluiett is barely able to chip him, and in the process he forces the back, Chris Warren, to slow down and adjust.

Recorded Announcement: Look at the receivers. You could throw the slant to Burt for easy yardage/touchdowns, and Marcus Johnson has just that corner standing between him and six points.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

At first I just thought this was trivial and I just wanted to remind everyone that Flowers is bad at football, but now I think I understand what the objective was.

A large part of the Texas run game plan was to pick on the two ends. The wham play was one element of that. This may have been another. On Counter, rather than trap the outside linebacker, like they did against Oklahoma (targeting Eric Striker especially), against Iowa State the playside tackle blocked the linebacker and left the end to be trapped by the pulling guard. This particular play would have been more productive had Flowers been able to get to the other inside linebacker.

As good as Texas had been with Counter run plays, I was stunned that this was the only time they ran it against Iowa State outside of the 18 Wheeler package. Strong was asked about it during his press conference and he said they did run it, but again, it was only with Swoopes outside of this one play. The QB Counter play with Heard that had been so devastating was absent from the game plan. 

 

[CoachEmUp64]

I cant watch this again...

 

[Rotty22]

the offense has to be more creative.  they can't run the same things over and over.  iowa st proved that and exposed how one dimensional heard really is.  if heard doesn't throw on some of these options, it's going to be a very depressing end of the season.

 

[Bear19]

Ryan

You are a masochist. 😞

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Lot of interesting stuff going on in this play.

First, the play itself. Bear with me because I'm going to oversimplify. The first part is the potential pick/rub with two crossing routes; the next part is the high/low read between the crosses and the dig behind it; the last part is the high/low read between the post and the dig. 

I can't tell you what Heard is looking at — it seems like he's just watching the free safety the whole time but who can tell from this angle. But I can tell you that the within the first 0.5 seconds that the post is likely going to come open because the corner has no help inside and a lot of ground to cover. There was probably a window to hit the dig as well. 

Unfortunately, right at the time the receivers running the dig and post are reaching the top of their stems, Heard has to evade a rusher. This is actually a mirror image of the stunt Iowa State used earlier to sack Heard. Maybe a more experienced quarterback could have reset after stepping around the rusher and thrown the post or dig or whatever, but Heard can't, and the moment he was forced out the play was basically dead.

Outside of the quick throws we've already talked about, I haven't seen a lot of plays where I think a receiver was open and Heard missed him. Every time it seems the rush got to him before he really had a good chance to throw. Take a bow, O-line.

All of that said, I don't know why they don't just run a vertical/quick-out to the field side, or even better, a bench screen, where the outside receiver stalk blocks the corner and the slot runs a quick out. You just have to be sure the ball is out quickly so it's not offensive pass interference. These are easy throws that Heard can make — much easier than a dig or deep post when you only need six yards. 

 

[Ryan Bridges]

There's big-play potential here if Marcus Johnson can sustain his block. Heard's release needs to be quicker as well.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

This is the second time I've noticed two Iowa State defenders chasing Daje on play-action passes with jet motion. I sort of wonder if a QB Lead Draw would have been a good call.

Oh, and yet again, look how wide open Marcus would be if he'd run a slant. That's just poor coaching, and it's not even Sunday Morning Quarterbacking because I noticed it during the game and I know others online did as well.

 

[Ryan Bridges]

Anyway, that's enough of that. I'm convinced that with just a couple of tiny adjustments in the passing game — attack those cushions outside, throw it over the top when the corners start jumping them, and throw the slant behind the safety coming down against jet motion — Texas would have won this game about 28-14.

The failure to attack the cushions is partly on Heard, but I also can't understand what's so difficult about pulling your quarterback aside between series and saying, "Look to the sideline before the snap, and if we make this gesture, throw the hitch to Burt." If Heard can't follow those instructions, bench him and let Swoopes try. If Swoopes can't follow those instructions, bench him and let Trey Holtz try. 

 

[North Texas Golfer]

Anyway, that's enough of that. I'm convinced that with just a couple of tiny adjustments in the passing game — attack those cushions outside, throw it over the top when the corners start jumping them, and throw the slant behind the safety coming down against jet motion — Texas would have won this game about 28-14.

The failure to attack the cushions is partly on Heard, but I also can't understand what's so difficult about pulling your quarterback aside between series and saying, "Look to the sideline before the snap, and if we make this gesture, throw the hitch to Burt." If Heard can't follow those instructions, bench him and let Swoopes try. If Swoopes can't follow those instructions, bench him and let Trey Holtz try. 

Ryan, always enjoy you film review. Good stuff and thanks for putting it together.

I'm with you on why aren't we seeing some adjustments during the game. Either Heard is not getting coached up or he is not responding to the coaching. Probably some of both if I had to guess.